Suan Pakkard Palace on Bangkok's Sri Ayutthaya Road

Wang Suan Pakkard ("Palace of the Lettuce Garden") is a peaceful oasis that was once the home of Princess Chumbhot of Nakhon Sawan. Five 19th-century teak houses were moved from Chiang Mai in 1952 and rebuilt in a beautifully landscaped garden on a private canal, separated by a high wall from the city tumult. The Lacquer Pavilion -- a house moved here from Ayutthaya in 1958 -- was a birthday present from Prince Nagor Svarga Sakdipinich, better known as Prince Chumbhol of Nagor Svarga, to his princess.

Princess Chumbhot was an avid art collector and one of the country's most dedicated archaeologists, and a room here holds ancient objects from an excavation she financed, along with Khmer sculpture, ivory boxes, perfume bottles, nielloware, marvelous prints of old Siam by European artists, a superb Buddha head from Ayutthaya and a royal barge.

Although the houses serve as repositories of the treasures of the past, they also give visitors a taste of what life is like in a Thai house surrounded by ornamental plants and trees, with a small pavilion by the pond where the late owner entertained her guests.